The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has delivered $45 million to the Palestinian Authority, the first installment of $165 million earmarked for the uprising against Israel, a bank official told AFP on Sunday, September 2. The Jeddah-based bank runs two Arab funds totaling one billion dollars set up by an Arab summit in Cairo last October to support the Palestinian intifada.

The IDB said in late August it had transferred $251 million to the PA from the two funds, after receiving a total of $538.2 million from 12 Arab states out of the one billion dollars pledged by the Cairo summit.

A Saudi newspaper meanwhile reported that an unnamed Saudi philanthropist had donated six million dollars to support the intifada. One million dollars will be used to expand and equip the medical facilities in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, Arab News quoted the IDB as saying. The remaining five million dollars will be paid into the two Arab funds set up to support the intifada.

The Jerusalem Intifada Fund was set up to assist the families of Palestinians killed or wounded, and the Al-Aqsa Fund to "preserve the Islamic character of East Jerusalem" and sustain the Palestinian economy. –(AFP, Riyadh)